Dassel-Cokato Saints Amateur Baseball
When the summer comes that can only mean one thing – the Dassel-Cokato Saints are playing another year of amateur baseball at Saints Field in Dassel.
There is a lot of excitement and high expectations for the Saints this season, and they return a majority of their team, as well as a couple of nice additions to compliment the returning players.
Coming into this season the Saints lost three guys out of the dugout – Nick Corbin, Perry Thinesen and Jerome Lindquist.
Even with the loss of those players, the Saints filled their spots with the addition of new names to the roster, including – Nich Lingl, Karsen Forsman, Quinn Impola, Eric Brubaker, Drew Gorenson, and Justin McKinley.
One of the brightest areas for DC is its returning pitchers. The Saints have an arsenal of young and veteran arms filling their pen, and there should be no shortage of hurlers. Their top returning starters are Dan Birkholz and Jordan Danielson. DC also hopes to return a healthy Eric Hanson, who wasn’t able to pitch as much last year due to injury.
Complementing DC’s top three starters is a slug of throwers ready to go when their number is called. They are Kyle Kaczmarek, Tyler Zweibohmer, Jordan Flick, Brubaker, and Brendon Opsahl.
On the field, manager Mark Forsman feels another one of the team’s stronger areas is its speedy outfield. Among those outfielders are center and right fielder Birkholz. Some other young names include Luke Peterson, Zach Lingl, Brendon Opsahl and Andrew Carlson.
In the infield is where Forsman is hoping to see a little more improvement over last season, when they suffered too many errors.
Starting behind the plate, the Saints have Matt Bergstrom back to anchor the catcher position. With Corbin gone, Ross Bergstrom is the backup catcher roll, and Nich Lingl when he is available.
About the only other position Forsman has been certain about is third, where veteran Brent Opsahl starts. As for first and the middle infield, Forsman has had lots of guys rotating in. McKinley has started at shortstop, but his playing time has depended heavily on his schedule. Brice Berggren has filled those middle infield positions, along with John Hohenstein, Cole Flick, Gorenson, and Jordan Flick.
First base has been filled by Hanson mostly, but Karsen Forsman has also been available.
The Saints have missed the state tournament for the last two seasons, and getting back just got tougher this year. Even though the Saints are still one of the leading competitors in the Section 8B playoffs, things just got a little more crowded with the addition of Winsted. With the Wildcats joining, and the addition of Plato last season, it won’t be an easy road back to state.
